Even Darkness Needs a Friend
by Albinia-Atticus
Summary: While still learning how to shadow travel, Nico accidentally runs into Bruce Banner. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that will change the world.
1. Chapter 1--Bruce

AN: This is my first published story. I'm always looking to improve, so please review!

 _Another person I couldn't save. What's the point of me being a doctor if I can't even save the majority of my patients?_ Bruce Banner stalked back to the crappy apartment he had rented for the next couple of weeks, as he was never going to stay in one place for too long. _And to make matters worse? It was a kid. Again._ He wiped away the tears that were threatening to escape from his eyes, afraid of showing weakness while in public.

Even though he had only been in this Indian town for a week, he had already gained a reputation as a White Man's Doctor. Doctors at all are scarce in these desolate places, but a White Man's Doctor is even more rare. Thus, even though Bruce had only healed five of the twelve people he had attended to, they kept coming, hoping for a miracle. But he was quickly losing faith in himself. He had only barely managed to escape the U.S. a month prior, and he was still learning how to control his new…well, he didn't know what to call it. A friend? An enemy? The only family he had left?

But he needed to do something while he learned, he needed to help people. That was what he had set out to do in the beginning, and now he couldn't even save himself. He dragged himself up the stairs, wanting to get out of the public eye and pray that no one rushed into his apartment in the middle of the night, but not wanting to be alone. Because when he's alone; that's when the shadows seem to have hands that want to drag him into the darkness he feels inside.

Finally, he made it inside. The single room apartment was as desolate and depressing as it had been for the past week. A single chair and a table, both looking like they may fall apart before his time in this town is done. A couple of duffle bags, holding all of his possessions in the world. He added his medical bag to the stool at the side of his bed. He lit the candle that resided on his table, only minimally lighting up the dismal room. He was so sick to his stomach for allowing another child to die, that he couldn't bare the thought of eating anything. So he spent the next few minutes reorganizing his medical supplies in case someone needed him in the middle of the night. Before too long, he blew out the candle and settled onto the hard mattress.

His memories haunted him though, and tonight, they refused to give him any peace. And so Bruce tossed and turned, seeing dead bodies every time he closed his eyes, and the alluring shadows every time he opened his eyes. Suddenly, one of the shadow's hands solidified into a human hand, and then a small body tumbled out of the side of his wall, collapsing next to his bags. Banner stared at the body, afraid his nightmares had found a way to come into his waking moments. But then he realized he couldn't tell if the child was breathing, and threw himself off the bed and onto the floor next to the unknown kid.

He held his finger up to the side of the child's neck, and sighed in relief when he felt a steady beat. He ensure the kid was breathing as well, before checking all over for any other injuries. He found a couple of bruises, but nothing too serious. Frowning in thought, he gently picked up the young boy and laid him on the bed, figuring it was better than the floor at least.

 _What the hell?_ Bruce thought. _Am I dreaming? How did he come out of the wall? Could he…could he be some sort of mutant?_ He shook his head, wondering why a mutant would be out here in India, and why they would come into his apartment. He hadn't left any trail to be followed, and besides, the kid was out cold. That would be one heck of a plan to send in an unconscious child to capture him.

 _Unless that's their plan? Get me to lower my guard and then swoop in before I can change?_ His eyes widened in fear. That was the topic of most of his nightmares; getting tricked into being captured easily and then tested on to figure out the intricacies of his mutation. He looked at the boy, who couldn't be more than thirteen years old, and hoped, for the boy's sake, that his fears would prove to be ungrounded. There was no other option than to wait until the boy woke up to find out exactly who he was and why he was here.


	2. Chapter 2--Nico

AN: There are two things that I did not mention last chapter

1\. I do not own either Percy Jackson or the Avengers, all the rights belong to their respective owners.

2\. I will be switching between Nico and Bruce's viewpoints each chapter, so obviously last chapter was Bruce, which makes this chapter Nico. I will try to label it at the beginning of each chapter in case you forget, but just so you know.

More Author Notes at the end of the chapter!

 **Nico** :

Nico's first thought is always about Bianca. The sister Percy failed. The sister who is no longer there to help him. S _he said she'd always be here for me. But now, I have to figure out everything by myself_. Just then, Nico remembered that he had attempted to shadow travel again last night, and he couldn't remember where he had landed. He scrunched his eyebrows together in thought, but came up with nothing. He decided to just open his eyes and hope that he hadn't landed in some sort of monster den, as that was currently one of his greatest fears. But the moment his eyelids slitted apart, sunlight burst inside and nearly blinded him.

 _Well, out of everything, I hadn't expected there to be sunlight. How long was I out?_ He wondered. Just then, someone shifted to his left, drawing Nico's focus there. It felt like the mystery person stared at Nico for several minutes, while Nico tried to figure how to open up his eyes without losing his sight. But he lost the race when the other person stood up and walked over to the left side of his face, blocking out the sunlight.

"You can open your eyes kid, I know the sunlight's bright" came the voice of the mystery man. Nico kind of didn't want to open his eyes, just out of spite, but he wanted to know who had been waiting for him to wake up. So he slowly slitted one eye open, and then the other, looking up at the gaunt face of a skinny, scared-looking man. He sat up slowly, trying to feel if he had any new bruises. He usually did, after shadow traveling to gods knows where. But surprisingly, he had fewer bruises than usual, and his body didn't feel quite as sore as it normally did after passing out. He slowly looked back up at the man standing above him, and prayed to the gods that he was friendly. Because he suddenly stepped away, leaving Nico sitting in the middle of sunlight, with no shadows in sight. At least, no shadows big enough for him to travel away in.

Both of them looked at each other, trying to hide the fear that was only growing. Finally, the man sat down to Nico's right, forcing Nico to turn around, placing the sun directly in the strangers vision. Nico didn't want to start the conversation, who knew who this man was? _He could be a god_. _Oh gods, what if he is? I haven't done anything wrong!_ Nico though desperately, now refusing to make eye contact with the man in front of him. He looked at the buildings around him, buildings that looked like they should be condemned and torn down. _Where even am I? Did I land in China again?_

Eventually, after several minutes of silence and refusal to make eye contact, the older man spoke. "Are you here to kill me?"

 _…_ _Um…what?_ Out of all the possibilities that ran through Nico's mind, that question was not one of them. _Well, at least I know he isn't a god. Who is this man and why would he think_ I _was here to kill him?_ "Are you here to kill me? Cause I don't even know who you are."

The other man seemed both relieved and surprised. He was silent for several moments, still staring at Nico. He seemed to make a decision, and then said, "Well, that's a relief. I…well, I've been hiding out here in case the US government decided to kill me or…never mind. My name is Bruce."

Nico was surprised at Bruce's readily surrendered information. He wondered if he could trust this man, who apparently had the government chasing him down to either kill him or something worse. _What could be worse? Could he be another demigod? But, the government doesn't seem to know we exist. At least, I don't think it does._ He took another look at Bruce. He seemed an honest bloke, but more importantly, someone who wouldn't immediately think Nico was crazy if he blurted out something about demigods. He decided to just ask Bruce, very bluntly, if he was. "Are you…are you a half-blood?"

Bruce narrowed his eyebrows, but in confusion, not in recognition. "What does that even mean? Half…what?"

"You know…half human, half…"

"Half what? What are you talking about?"

Nico didn't want to say anything now, Bruce was staring to look angry. He remembered angry…and it scared him. Even when Midas… _oh gods! Midas! I need to get back to the States! He's going to be so angry with me for taking so long to get back!_ But, even when Midas got angry, it was never directed at him. But Bruce, he looked like he was trying to hold something in. As if…as if he was trying not to hurt Nico. He shrunk back from the older man, trying to subtly get back in the shadows so he could leave before something bad happened.

But Bruce seemed to know what he was trying to do. He leaped forward and grabbed Nico's arm. Nico yelped in surprise, trying to get out of the man's surprisingly strong grasp. He looked wildly around, hoping that someone would be around who could get him away from the…green man in front of him? If Nico wasn't hallucinating, it seemed as if Bruce's skin was turning green! He stared at the man still gripping his arm, who seemed to realized what Nico was staring at. He loosened his grip on Nico, but did not let go. Bruce closed his eyes, and started breathing evenly and calmly.

This went on for several minutes, and the green tinge on Bruce's skin slowly went away and his grip seemed to gradually weaken. But now, well, now Bruce had captured Nico's attention. Obviously, something else was at work. He hadn't seemed to understand what Nico meant when he said half-blood, which just about threw out the possibility of him being a demigod. Which left the question; just _what_ is the man who calls himself Bruce?

AN2: So OH MY GOSH you guys! Thank you so much for your support in my first story! I really, really, really, appreciate it! Thank you overlordred and Aviendhaphiragon for your reviews! Finwitch1, a BIG thank you to you for that question, I honestly had not thought about that, but it made me rethink my plan a little. So hopefully I answered your question. And jodyowl11, you are my favorite reviewer so far! (don't tell the others :)) All I can tell you right now is that Nico is not injured, he's simply recovering. When Nico was first learning how to shadow travel, he made several accidental trips to China and always seemed to be really tired and on the verge of passing out. So I simply rerouted him over to Banner and had him actually pass out (since it's a little bit further away from New York if you go West). And...none of your guesses were correct. Just hold out a couple more chapters, we'll get there :)

Currently, I'm just trying to get the plot going, but soon the chapters will hopefully get longer.

Please keep reviewing!


	3. Chapter 3--Bruce

**AN: Sorry it took so long to get this one uploaded! There's two reasons why; 1) I got a beta! Thank you for the lovely jodyowl11 for reading through this mess and making it easier for everyone to read! And 2), this chapter is twice the length of the first two chapters, so it's quite long. There's some angst in this one, so be warned. The ending may give you some feels for these poor guys. Thanks for reading and thank you to Envoy, overlorded, The Watermelon, and beazlerat for reviewing! Keep the reviews coming, they make me write faster! ;)**

 **Bruce:**

"Half-monster? Is that what you think I am?" Bruce closed his eyes, still struggling to keep his temper in check. He could feel the other half of himself wanting to break out at what first seemed to be a threat. He threw up a mental barrier, because the last thing he wanted to do was seriously injure, or even kill a child.

Opening his eyes, he observed that the unusually young boy didn't seem as anxious to get away from him, which only served to confuse him even more. Bruce took a step back; the boy clothed in black actually seemed calm and aware at the same time. Is he not scared of me? If I'm not mistaken, I started to transform, and it was definitely noticed. Who is this boy?

"No". The kid shook his head, seeming to be talking to himself. "Not half-monster. I don't even know if that's possible…in fact I don't want to know." He gently forced Bruce's hand off of his arm and gave it back to him. Bruce was too shocked at how nonchalant the kid was acting to keep holding on to him. The kid looked sheepishly up at him, seeming to smile at how confused he looked. The kid ran a hand through his long black hair and answered the unasked question, "I don't think I ever introduced myself. My name is Nico, and I am definitely not with the government. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the military would want to experiment on me if they knew what I was, too."

What?! "What…what do you mean?" Bruce stared at Nico. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could such a young boy think such a terrible thought? Bruce was expecting fear and distrust, but instead he was receiving understanding and honesty? Nico must have sensed Bruce's conflicted emotions, and tried to fix the situation, and probably trying to avoid another almost-transformation.

"I understand you're suspicious of me, and trust me. I feel the same about you. But, there are beings out there who scare me a whole lot more than you do, no offense. Plus, I have this feeling that I can trust you. Maybe it's because you voice the same thoughts at me. But maybe it's because you're obviously not human either. Not completely, at least." The boy, Nico, gave a sideways look at Bruce, as if looking for agreement from the older man.

Bruce nodded, feeling the same sort of inexplicable trust for the boy. But, now that he was calmed down, his medical skills kicked in, and he noticed how pale and thin Nico was. He knew that he had no right to outright ask the kid why he looked so malnourished, but resolved to do so at the next best possible moment. Switching tracks, Bruce spoke. "What did you call me again?" he asked, the exact wording of the phrase escaping him for a moment.

"Half-blood. It's what we've been called for centuries. Millennium even." Nico replied, offhanded, instead obviously curious and focused about what was bothering the older man.

"Half-blood, huh?" Bruce sorted through his memories. That sounded familiar, but why? It was like something he learned years ago, and decided it wasn't important, and so buried deep within his other thoughts. Bruce pondered it again from a new angle; half-blood. Half what exactly? He walked back inside, with a comment that he would be right back, and grabbed some water bottles. Offering Nico some water (which was taken from his hand rather suspiciously), Bruce nudged Nico to solve the obvious puzzle between them. "That term, Half-Blood, sounds familiar, as if I should know what it means, but I don't. If you don't mind, could you explain it to me?"

Just then, a group of children came rushing down the street, headed straight for them. Bruce swiftly stood up and motioned for Nico to do the same. His house was at a well-travelled area, and he sensed it was making Nico uncomfortable, confirming his thoughts that if Nico would reveal anything, it would definitely be sensitive information. He knew a stretch of forest not too far away from the village, where few people went. "Do you mind if you hold off answering until we go somewhere no one can hear us? If your secret is anything like mine, you don't want…normal people to hear you."

Nico smiled, the first true smile Bruce had seen on his face. He nodded, "Yeah. I mean, the mortals would probably just think I'm crazy for claiming the things I do, so they will probably just ignore me and hope I went away." He motioned for Bruce to lead the way, and then followed close behind. Mortals? Bruce gave a mental shrug and allowed Nico to lead him; the village could do without it's doctor for a day.

Nico was inhumanly quiet as he walked, as if the ground shrank beneath his feet. Bruce inadvertently quickened his pace as he walked, as if some ancient power was telling him that he was only putting himself in more danger. But he ignored the feelings, and walked into the shady forest with a fixed purpose. All he wanted to do now was find out more about the mysterious child behind him and why he felt that, out of anyone he'd ever know, Nico truly understood his struggles. Of course, others had come and gone, but Bruce hadn't met anyone with such a unique situation since he left the United States to escape S.H.E.I.L.D and all the attention.

Several times he had to look back at Nico to make sure he was still there. Once they had reached the shady part of the forest, Nico had become even quieter. As if that was actually possible, a voice in the back of his head commented. Bruce knew these were the actions of a person often put in danger, but he didn't want to believe that anyone would put a child in that situation. Once or twice, when he looked back at Nico, it seemed as if the boy was staring into the shadows, searching for something. Nico caught Bruce doing the same, making sure they were not followed, but continued searching the dark woods. So what is Nico looking for that he thinks Bruce can't see?

Bruce kept them walking for another ten minutes after Nico already deemed the woods secluded enough to make sure no one was creeping along behind them. He selected a particularly soft-looking clearing in the middle of the trees, and motioned for Nico to sit down next to him. Leaning back on a tree himself, he watched Nico specifically choose to sit in one of the few patches of sunlight, avoiding to look into Bruce's eyes, and stretched his arms. They looked at each other for a few moments, until Nico appeared to have gathered the courage to explain.

"Half-blood. You probably guessed it means that I'm half-human, but you're not gonna want to believe what the other half of me is." Nico seemed nervous, as if he was afraid Bruce would misconstrue his words again.

"I think you'll find I will believe whatever you have to say. However, what I am, that…that you're not going to want to believe." Bruce tried to relax as much as possible, to keep as calm as he could. The last thing he wanted to do was get angry and either hurt Nico or, run off and leave him in the middle of the woods without a guide back.

Nico took a deep breath, looking at the shadows again, this time looking for resolve. "God." He said, matter-of-factly. "Greek god to be specific; Hades to be even more specific. I'm half-human, half-god. I'm a son of Hades"

Bruce blinked. Well. He...he was not expecting that. But, the Greek gods were myths; they were proven to have been made up. There's…there's no way that this child in front of me is the son of a Greek god. Bruce was quiet for several minutes, before he decided to just accept the situation. Because really, knowing his own life, he should be more accepting of people.

Finally, he looked back at Nico, who was half looking at him, and half looking at the ground. He seemed scared of Bruce, to his dismay. Bruce caught Nico's eyes, and forced himself to look as friendly as possible. He took a deep breath, "Okay. I'll be honest with you, Nico, I don't want to believe you. But," he added, seeing Nico's look of indignation, "But, after everything that's happened to me, I think that I can. Just, please explain it to me. Last I heard, the Greek gods were not real. So, please. Explain it to me. I'll try to keep an open mind." After all, Bruce was, first and foremost, a scientist. So, if the presence of Greek gods was real, it will throw everything he knew out the window. 'But, for the kid's sake, I'll go along', Bruce thought.

Nico took a deep breath; where is he supposed to start? "Like I said, my father is Hades, the god of Underworld. The Greek gods are most definitely not fake; believe me, my life would be a lot easier if they were." He smiled darkly, looking nervously up at the sky. "Half-blood, it's the term we use to describe those who have a Greek god or goddess as one of their parents. We're also called demigods, it's really personal preference which one you use."

"So, like Hercules and those guys, right?" Bruce asked, to be sure he understood what Nico was saying.

"Yeah, exactly. Hercules, who was a son of Zeus." He paused, probably collecting his thoughts on what he wanted to say next. "The Greek gods have always existed, as far I've been told. They aren't in Greece anymore though; they've moved around as the heart of Western Civilization has moved. They're currently on top of the Empire State Building."

Nico noticed the look of confusion on Bruce's face, and laughed. "Yeah, sorry. I've never had to explain this to a mortal before, I'm probably just confusing you."

"Mortal?" Bruce scrunched up his face in thought. He was was genuinely curious what Nico meant, having never been called a 'mortal' before.

"It's just what we call anyone who's not, like, a demigod or god or monster. A normal person. Honestly, I have no idea why, since it seems I'm just as mortal as you, but." He gave another childish smile, "I'm sorry if the term offended you before. Using it is just a habit for me, sorry. I really just want to be trusted for once".

Bruce took a couple of moments to decide whether he wanted to trust Nico the same way Nico was trusting him. "You already know I'm not entirely 'mortal' as you say, but I'm not what you think. I…I don't know how to explain what I am to you."

Nico smiled darkly, looking at Bruce's chest. "I can tell you're human though. Mid…my mentor has been teaching me to control the abilities that come with being a son of Hades, and one of them is," He air-quoted, " 'Seeing souls'. It's not really seeing though, more like just knowing it's there. If you were a monster or something, I wouldn't have stayed here. You're human."

He looked, smiling, back up at Bruce's face, childlike, trusting,and innocent, but Bruce could see hints of darkness and danger in his eyes.

Bruce stared at those eyes in shock and confusion. 'He can see souls?', Bruce thought, 'What other powers does this kid have? And he thinks I'm still human? Even though I'm a monster, he says I'm still human?'. Bruce knew it wasn't true, and felt the need to warn the boy. Nico did not need him as a friend. There were simply too many dangers involved. "I…my soul…", He shook his head, "But I am a monster Nico. It doesn't matter if I still have my soul. I'm…I'm pretty sure that my other half doesn't."

Now it was Nico's turn to look confused. "Other half?"

"Yes. I guess it's my turn to give you my life story. I may not have been born…different from everyone else, but I am." He turned away from Nico, "I most definitely am."

Nico appeared content to wait for Bruce to get his thoughts in order. He was quiet, until Bruce finally turned back and spoke.

"I was born human. I was raised human. But, there was an…accident, years ago. I was a respected scientist, working with what's called gamma radiation." Bruce was so wrapped up in trying to explain his life to Nico that he missed the look of complete and utter confusion on his face. "Basically, I was trying to make soldiers more resistant to radiation, but the man who was in charge of my experiments had a different direction he wanted to go in. He was trying to recreate Captain America." This time, he glanced over at Nico, and noticed how lost he looked. "I'm sorry, I…what is confusing you?"

Nico looked ashamed at not knowing what Bruce was talking about. "I just…it's nothing. I've just never really studied happened in history past World War II."

Bruce tried not to give him a weird look, but judging by Nico's face, he failed. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

"I know, it's not your fault, Bruce. I just had an…unusual childhood."

"Um, okay. Well, gamma radiation is too complicated to get into here, but it's very powerful stuff that will usually just kill people quickly. And Captain America was a man, back during World War II, who was injected with an experimental drug to try and create a super-soldier. They succeeded, and he proceeded to do quite a bit of damage to a secret Nazi organization. He disappeared before the war ended, though. As far as I know, they haven't found him yet. The man who was in charge of my experiments on gamma radiation, unknown to me, was leading them in such a way that they would recreate the super-soldier serum that created Captain America.

"But," Bruce took a deep breath. "Something went wrong. Something went terribly wrong. Instead of becoming the super soldier they wanted, I become a monster." Seeing Nico's look of disagreement he shook his head and responded, "No, really. I become something other than human. I transformed into a large, green humanoid creature that I had no control over. I hurt…" He paused, "I hurt a lot of people. That day, and every time since that I've lost control and turned into the…The Hulk, they called me. 'The Incredible Hulk'." He snorted, "As if there's anything incredible about turning into something capable of tearing down entire buildings and not being able to control it, at all."

Bruce turned away fro Nico again, not wanting to see his look of condemnation he knew would be there. "I tried to control myself, I tried to be a normal person. But it didn't work…I was found. So I," He took another deep breath, knowing he was ashamed of the actions that came next. "I ran. I ran away from everything I had ever known and came here. I hope that they will never find me again, although I know it's a useless hope. There's no way they'll let something this world-changing just…go. I'm just waiting for the day they send someone in to put me down."

Nico stood up and walked around the tree to sit in front of Bruce. He waited until Bruce finally lifted his eyes to meet the young boy's own, which were suddenly reflecting the same pain that Bruce felt. "I understand. Really, I do. Children of Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon are extremely powerful, more powerful than any other demigod, and technically, I'm not supposed to be alive. Those three gods, they made a deal not to have any kids because we're too powerful." Nico suddenly got stiff, as if he was trying to keep his voice steady. "Zeus tried to kill me and my sister, and succeeded in killing my mom. Now there's a daughter of Zeus and son of Poseidon," here Nico's eyes suddenly darkened and the shadows seemed to pull in towards the son of Hades, "And they're still running around, and they're still alive. So there's less chance of Zeus just suddenly bringing a bolt of lightning down on my head now, but I'm always afraid of doing something wrong, of becoming too powerful, and Zeus just killing me, then and there. So I do get it, Bruce, I do. I'm sorry."

The two males, one young and the other his elder, sat in the forest for hours, simply taking in the fact that the other understood. They didn't have to pretend that their lives were anything but complete and utter crap, and that they both had people who could come in at any moment and destroy the life they had built for themselves. They sat there, getting to know the other, their suspicions getting wiped away with each successive hour they spent in each other's company. They discussed each other's abilities; Nico's shadow traveling and his being able to summon skeleton warriors; Bruce told Nico about the things that he had done while the Hulk, and just how strong it was. They knew their time in each other's company wouldn't last, but they could take solace in the present moments. They told each other of their best moment, and their worst. They laughed and listened, even if it was strained. For eventually, they both knew, Nico would have to go back to America, and Bruce would have to keep moving, he would have to keep hiding, alone.


	4. Chapter 4--Nico

**AN: So here's the next chapter! Warning for possible Nico feels, don't say I didn't warn you! Thanks again to my beta, jodyowl11, and to beazlerat,** **overlorded, and Tobi Steele! You guys are what keeps me writing, so don't stop reviewing!**

 **.**

 **Nico:**

Nico woke with a start, noticing that the shadows around him were longer and more absolute than they were when he and Bruce were talking. _Oh gods, did we fall asleep?_ Nico sat up immediately, well aware how vulnerable he was sleeping like that, but calmed down when he saw Bruce asleep next to him. Nico got a lump in his throat, thinking about how much he trusted the older man, even though he only met him yesterday. ' _That makes it a whole day since I shadow traveled here', Nico thought, 'I should go back, Midas is gonna give me an earful for not coming back immediately. And there's no way I'm telling him about Bruce; I can't betray him like that. Knowing Midas, he'd probably figure out a way to send the military here just so that I can't talk to Bruce anymore. And…I really enjoyed talking to him yesterday.'_ Nico took an awkward pause, remembering that he didn't even tell Bruce the whole story. 'I mean, maybe we didn't talk about the fact that I might be the child of the prophecy and that's why Zeus tried to kill me, or that I tried to kill Percy not even two months ago, but I'm just not ready to admit that yet... I don't want him to think that I'm a monster.'

Bruce woke with a start, bringing Nico out of his thoughts. They looked at each other, wondering what the other was thinking. Neither wanted to have to leave the only person who truly understood what the other was going through. Nico really didn't want to leave Bruce, who, in the space of a few hours, had become the father figure Nico had always wanted. _Percy was supposed to be that for me. He was supposed to take care of Bianca and me, and he failed._ Nico fumed silently, _He let her die, and he let me leave, and he…he…I HATE him!_ Nico looked up, startling himself with the sudden, silent outburst of emotion and caught Bruce's look of concern.

"What's wrong Nico? You look so angry." Bruce asked gently, having figured out yesterday how broken Nico was under the armor he possessed.

Nico looked away, he couldn't talk about that, and he didn't want Bruce's pity, even if Bruce was a friend. Not yet, maybe not ever. He knew what he was feeling was wrong, and he didn't want to bring up one of his major flaws in front of a man he just desperately wanted to impress. Nico pushed the matter aside, "It's nothing. Just…something that happened a few months ago that I…I can't talk about yet."

Bruce gently turned his face back around so they were eye to eye again. "I get it. There's things that I've done that I don't want you to know about yet either, so don't worry about it. But when you're ready to talk about it, or if it just gets to be too much, I'm here to listen."

Looking at Bruce's concerned face, Nico tried not to give into his feelings and hug Bruce, after all, Nico thought awkwardly, he barely knew him! But, Nico added to himself, they shared a connection last night, and understood each other. Bruce must secretly have been psychic, because the older man pulled Nico into his arms and held him close. Now all Nico could think of was to not cry on Bruce, but that quickly went out the window when Bruce started speaking comforting nonsense into his ear, telling him that he was going to be okay, that he is here for him, and that no matter what anyone else says, he is a good person. Soon, Nico gave in, figuring that he wouldn't have much time left to spend in India with Bruce anyway.

Nico guesses that he cried into Bruce's comforting chest for close to an hour, based on how light it was getting. But all the anger he had been feeling towards Percy, and even towards Bianca, in that moment, it all seemed to flow right out with his tears. He knew it wouldn't last, and that as soon as he went back to Midas, he would become angry again. But for now, he took advantage of having an adult really care about him, and care about what he was feeling. Usually, they just assumed they knew what he was thinking and never asked him. Even Midas did it; and though it sometimes made him upset, sometimes it was nice not to have to make those decisions.

Bruce eventually gently pulled the boy off of him, and looked up at the sky. "It looks like the sun's coming up. And, whether or not we want it to, life has already gone on without us. I probably have patients waiting for me back in the village, and I'm sure someone is waiting for you to get back."

Just then, Nico's stomach rumbled loudly, causing both males to laugh. "Although, I'm sure we have enough time for a quick breakfast," Bruce told the young boy, realizing he must not have eaten since the night before, when he first showed up in Bruce's apartment.

Nico nodded his head, looking forward to a meal. Besides, it meant he'd have more time to spend with Bruce! He ignores the little voice in the back if his head, reminding him about furious Midas waiting his return. They walked slowly back to Bruce's apartment, taking in the beautiful sunrise. When they made it back there were more than a dozen people lined up in front of Bruce's door, and Nico instinctively shrank back from them, not comfortable with large groups of strangers.

Bruce looked back at him, and seemed to understand. "Let me go tell them that I'll be able to see patients in an hour or so, and you can hang back until they leave. That sound all right?"

Nico nodded, and said softly, "Thank you. I really appreciate it."

Bruce smiled at him, and walked over to the people in waiting for him. Nico could not hear what was said, but a couple of the women and a man began to get really agitated, waving their arms about and shouting at Bruce, but the older man seemed to quickly calm them down and sent them on their way, probably promising to be at their homes after he finished his breakfast. They dispersed slowly, appearing to grumble but still respecting Bruce's privacy and his right to eat in peace.

When they were all gone, Nico walked up to Bruce's door, and, finding it open, walked up the stairs to the room he only vaguely remembered from the night he shadow traveled here. Bruce was already pouring some cereal into a couple of bowls. He finished quickly, apologized for not having any milk to pour into the cereal, and they both sat down at the rickety table near one of the walls. Neither spoke much while they ate, maybe trying to prolong the meal, maybe just trying to enjoy each other's company while it lasted.

The simple meal was over too quickly, at least in Nico's opinion, and the dishes cleaned all too soon. Nico looked up at Bruce, the skinny man who seemed larger than any other person he had ever met. Bruce was already more of a father to him than Hades ever was.

"I don't want to leave," Nico said quietly. He couldn't even lift up his head to meet Bruce's eyes, which he knew would only hold condemnation at his weakness. But Bruce gently lifted the boy's face up to meet the his own eyes. Nico saw the same sadness reflected back at him, much to his surprise. Bruce once again pulled him into a comforting hug, but allowed this one to last for only a few moments.

"I know Nico. I've never felt that anyone could understand what my life has been like, and I never wanted anyone to. But, I'm glad I met you. Life…it felt simpler yesterday. Just knowing that you get it. I hope that we see each other again." Bruce said, with the grief he was feeling evident on his face.

Nico nodded, unable to speak. He attempted to pour all the emotions he was feeling into the strained smile he gave Bruce; sadness, anger at having to leave, empathy for the older man, and a promise. A promise that he would come back. Stepping outside, he looked around the apartment building, and found a corner still shrouded in shadow. He stepped into it, and gave Bruce one last look of gratitude. Silently, in his head Nico brushed against a forbidden thought- that he wouldn't make it through the coming war, and that he, like his sister, would die soon. His real fear now, was not returning to Bruce. After all, it was a demigod's destiny to die young. "I'll be back. If you're gone, then I'll find you. Stay safe, Bruce. Please" Nico said, the last word was spoken softly, as if he was afraid of jinxing his wish by saying it too loud.

Bruce waved, unaware of Nico's fear for the moment. "You too, kid. You too." Bruce gave him one last, warm smile, and waved him goodbye. Nico closed his eyes, and dissolved into shadow, leaving behind the first person, since Bianca, that he knew truly loved him.

 **.**

 **AN2: So, Nico and Bruce are separated, which breaks my heart. Nico has always been my favorite character, and I just want him to be happy! But we all knew it was coming. Next chapter should be up soon, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out exactly where the story is going to go until they meet up again. So if you have something that you would like to see in the upcoming chapters, let me know, and maybe that will make it into the story ;)**


	5. Chapter 5--Bruce

**AN: So, the boys are separated. Hopefully that won't be for too long, but I'm still working on that. Thank you again to everyone who reviewed, and to my beta, jodyowl11! This story would not be happening without all of you, so please keep reviewing!**

 **.**

 **Bruce:**

The apartment seemed empty; Nico may not have been a particularly bubbly or happy child, but he had enjoyed having another person in his space. That surprised him, ever since the accident he had drawn himself away from the public, not letting anyone in too close in fear that they would push him away when the monster was revealed. But Nico, he was something different. He listened to the things that his other half had done, and never once seemed to judge him for it. In fact, the more that I shared with him, the more the boy relaxed. The more that he seemed to realize that Bruce was a safe person, and he did not have to be afraid of revealing something that normal people wouldn't understand.

Bruce had recognized the armor that Nico wore; the thick skin that only developed after doing something terrible and knowing that while it was justified or even needed, that it would forever be a weight to be borne. He also saw under the boy's armor with ease, and saw how alone and broken the child was. He saw the hesitation in his words, and in his actions. The way that Nico had looked at him in the forest, that still hour, before the morning came. Nico had tried to hide the subtle glances at him, the quiet screams for physical contact, for someone to say it was going to be okay. But Bruce had already seen through him, and knew that the only thing that would help Nico was to be like a father to him; a father that neither male had been given.

He wasn't sure if he actually believed Nico that the Greek gods existed, but he knew that Nico believed it, and the boy did not seem to be one for lying about something that earth-shattering. Nico had said that Mount Olympus was on top of the Empire State Building right now, and last Bruce knew, there was nothing on top of one of the tallest buildings in the United States but the sky and stars. But Bruce knew he was a human who, when angered, turned into an uncontrollable green monster that could destroy just about anything, so who was he to talk? Plus, he had seen the boy both appear and disappear through shadows, which was impossible no matter how you looked at it.

Whichever way Bruce looked at it, he only saw two possible answers. One, that Nico was telling the truth and he was actually the son of Hades, and the Greek gods are real. Two, Nico was actually a mutant, and was for some reason fabricated a lie to cover it up Whether or not he wanted to believe it, Nico must be telling the truth about his heritage. Which posed the question: What does Bruce do with that information? Did he really need to do anything at all? He owed nothing to SHIELD or anyone else with them, but should he tell them about the possibility of a threat from ancient myths? Bruce himself was a threat, and Nico knew that he could be one too, if he used his power the wrong way. Bruce wouldn't have been surprised if they wanted to experiment on the boy if they knew the truth.

That thought brought him up short. They would, wouldn't they? The little Bruce had seen of SHIELD and their associates, they wouldn't hesitate to experiment on the ten-year old boy, for no other reason then to find out what made him tick. Bruce felt his thoughts come crashing down with realization. He couldn't do that to Nico, he couldn't betray his trust like that.

Nico had understood the monster inside him, and for some reason accepted it, and that Bruce was a kind person. The man wanted to prove Nico true, and decided to keep his knowledge of the Greek gods to himself unless they posed an immediate and legitimate problem to the public's way of life. Nodding to himself, he packed up his doctor's kit and set out to meet with the people who had waited outside of his door yesterday and today for him to heal their loved ones, determined to live up to the younger boy's expectations.

He grinned, thinking about what they had said to him. Or at least, what he thought they had said. They seemed to speak a sort of broken English mixed with a lot of (what he assumed was Telegu) phrases. He had picked up a couple of the common words (sick, cut, dying), but still relied on the context the few english words provided. But even with the language barriers in rural areas, he managed to earn the people's trust. The adults standing there had yelled at him for abandoning their sick children and dying spouses, and had each demanded he attend to theirs first. He had appeased them by saying that he had met a particularly sick boy who needed to be kept away from other humans, but only required a day's worth of attention before he was healed. They reluctantly bought his story (unless they were just confused due to the language barrier, and decided to leave the crazy doctor alone) and left to be with their children and spouses.

He only hoped that he would be able to save at least one person today. He would have to leave the village soon anyway, since he couldn't allow himself to stay in one place for too long; he wanted to leave having helped at least one more person. Too often of late he had lost more than he helped, but his encounter with the son of Hades (however ironic the situation seemed) had filled him a determination to do something that would make Nico proud. Something that would cause that genuine smile to cross the boy's face again, and make him feel happiness. From here on out, every patient he would save not only for his soul, but for Nico's.


	6. Chapter 6--Nico

**Nico:**

Nico stumbled slightly as he pulled himself out of the shadows into a corridor of the Labyrinth. He was a short distance from the cavern where he knew Midas would be waiting for him, but that was on purpose. The tears he had been forcing back since he realized that he would have to leave Bruce finally pushed themselves to the surface and refused to forced back down. He cried silently, tears streaking down his face, until the hiccups started.

Not wanting Midas to hear him and show up while he was crying, Nico took several deep breaths and wiped his face with the bottom of his t-shirt. Benefit of wearing black, he thought grimly, no one will able to see the dampness. Once he knew his face was free of tear streaks and his eyes were no longer red, he walked down the narrow corridor into the large cavern at its end.

"Midas! Are you in here? Sorry it took me so long to get back here, but I went further than usual and needed more time to rest up." He paused, looking around the cavern for the tell-tale glimmer of Midas' ghost, but saw nothing. He sighed, all that worrying over Midas hearing him for nothing. He walked forward, stepping carefully over the scars on the floor that marked where he practiced summoning skeleton warriors. He walked past more Nico-sized indents on walls, where he shadow travelled directly into the side of the cavern at a fast velocity. Nico carefully passed the pool of sludge in the middle of the room where one day Midas would teach him how to summon other ghosts.

Shrugging, he made his way over to the mattress that he had brought down here some weeks ago, and decided that a nap was in order. He was still recovering from the longest shadow travel trip he had ever taken, and was emotionally drained from having to leave Bruce behind. He laid down, and closed his eyes, falling asleep faster then he thought he could.

 _The dream starts in a familiar place, with a familiar story. Bianca is lying on the Poseidon table in the dining pavilion, with her eyes closed and body motionless. Nico stands a moment, frozen, and he tries to resist the urge to rush to his sister's side. He should be too familiar with the events that happen next to care, but he still tries, fruitlessly, to wake her up, to get his sister back. Before too long, he feels Percy's presence behind him. He whips around, and sure enough, there is the smug son of Poseidon, standing there as if he hadn't allowed Bianca to die. Nico can hear Percy telling him that he's sorry, that he didn't mean for Bianca to die, but Nico can hear the truth behind his words._ _Children of Hades are abominations, I don't know why I ever tried to like you, Nico. You should have died all those years ago, why did Hades protect you?_ _Voices swirled around him, adding to Percy's._ _You're so pathetic, your own sister got tired of helping you after all those years. Why do you think she left you to join Artemis? You're so weak and trusting that you let your sister leave camp. You let Bianca die. You turned into a coward and retreated from the world to hang out with a ghost. You're a freak of nature, and you can't be trusted._

 _Percy kept talking, beating Nico down with every word he spoke, until the younger boy got so angry that he couldn't hold it in anymore. He screamed, in anger and in pain, and skeleton warriors shot out of the ground, and without hesitation, began tearing Percy apart. Nico watched with morbid fascination, as every bit of Percy's flesh was torn off his body and flung away. There was nothing left of the son of Poseidon, except bones and pieces of his clothing. But Nico could still hear his mocking laughter, ringing in his ears._

 _The skeletons dissolved back into the earth, and Nico knew he would wake up soon. He always woke up after they tore Percy apart. But this time he sensed another presence, someone he had never felt in his dreams before. Nico whipped around in fear with wide eyes. Bruce stepped out of the shadows that were surrounding Nico, and looked at him with nothing but condemnation in his eyes. Nico stared at the older man, with shock and pain written all over his face. "No! Bruce, wait! Please, let me explain!" Nico cried out, but Bruce just turned away from him. He walked away, each step covering ten times more than it should have. Nico ran after him, trying to explain but unable to get any coherent thoughts out beyond the screams. He felt the edges of his dream start to dissolve, and pushed himself to go faster. Bruce only got further and further away, never turning back to Nico once, never giving him a chance to explain._

Nico woke with a start, his throat feeling raw. He realized that Midas was standing next to the mattress, looking down at him with an inconvenienced glance. "You were screaming, young master. What might have brought that on?" Midas asked, with a false note of sympathy in his voice.

Nico looked away, unable to meet Midas' bored eyes. "I don't want to talk about it." He whispered harshly, his throat raw. "It was nothing." He stood up, still facing away from the ghost king.

"Whatever you say, young master." He heard Midas say from behind him.

Nico sighed and turned around, hearing the unasked question in that statement. "I took a trip to India on accident this time, okay? It took longer than usual to rest up enough to be able to come back. In fact, I'm still not rested enough to be able to do anything, so how about you just go away, okay?" His voice rose steadily as he explained himself, until he nearly shouted the last few words at the ghost standing in front of him.

"How dare you." Came the quiet, indignant words from the incorporeal form. "I have freely given you my time and my expertise to help you train for _your_ revenge," Nico winced, "And this is how you repay me! Ungrateful little brat!" Midas spit out the last words, his gaze darkening as he scowled at the child standing in front of him.

Nico flinched at the angry tone of voice. Regretting his previous choices, he tried to apologize, "Sorry. I just—I just had a bad dream. But I am actually really tired. Do you mind holding off the training until I'm rested?" He asked carefully, knowing how powerful Midas was down in the Labyrinth, and not wanting to get him any angrier. Even though he was unsure why he allowed Midas to train him, the ghost had proved himself useful ever since Nico ran away from Camp Half-Blood.

"Fine. If you want to waste another day, then that's not my problem." Midas didn't say another word to Nico's apologies, no matter what he said to try and make Midas understand.

Eventually the ghost king left Nico alone in the cavern, making the boy relieved and terrified at the same time. He knew that no matter what he did, he could never let Midas know about Bruce. He had made that decision back in India, but now, having talked (argued) with Midas again, his resolve was much stronger.

He also knew that no matter how much he trusted Bruce, he knew that the older man would only condemn him if he knew what he dreamed about at night. _I should be grateful that I did not have that dream while we were sleeping in the forest. There's no way I could have gotten myself out of that with my secrets intact._ He sighed. Knowing that there was someone out there who understood his pain and why he had to keep himself hidden from the world only made it harder to be alone.

The child, for that's all he was at the end of the day, laid back down on the mattress, and tried to get back to sleep, to forget about his problems for a few hours more. But sleep eluded him for some time, and his problems and his self-doubts only grew with each passing minute. Nico finally fell asleep, much to his chagrin. He only hoped that he didn't scream out loud this time, and make Midas even angrier. However, this time, the dream was different.

 _He opened his eyes to see the grey-black tones of his father's throne room. Hades was not in the room, but Nico got the sense that he was not far. After all, demigods don't initiate these dream-calls. He waited for several minutes, only getting more and more agitated as time went on. Finally, the tall, intimidating man walked in from somewhere behind his throne. "Ah, Nico. There you are. I was afraid you were never going to fall asleep. Is there something on your mind that we should talk about?" Hades asked, noticing the dark look that seemed permanent on his face lately._

 _Nico laughed, inwardly of course, no need to get his father upset at him. "No. There's nothing we need to talk about. Was there something you wanted with me?" Nico tried and failed to not be the sarcastic little brat he knew he could be. But at that moment, when he could have been dreaming of better things, instead stuck with a man who only perfunctorily cared about his safety, he was pretty mad._

 _Hades narrowed his eyes, and replied, "That is no tone to take with me, boy. Remember who I am."_

 _This time Nico laughed out loud. "Oh, I remember. You never let me forget. Just tell me, what did you call me in here to say?"_

 _Hades, King of the Underworld, God of the Dead, sighed. His son was more on the offensive than ever, and he had no idea what had brought it on. Midas had come to him after Nico had been missing for more than twelve hours, and Hades had not been able to locate his son anywhere in the United States. It seemed that the boy was not going to tell him where he had been, nor say why he was more riled up than the last time they had seen each other. "I want you to come down to the Underworld for a little while. There's something that I want to teach you."_

 _"Won't Midas teach me? He has, after all, been the one telling me what it means to be your son." Nico spat, not wanting anything to do with man in front of him at the moment._

 _Hades sighed heavily, walking over to his throne and sitting down thoughtfully upon it. He knew there was nothing he could say that would make Nico understand why he could not teach his son himself. But he had to try. "Nico, as one of the Elder Gods, I cannot show favoritism like that. None of my brothers or sisters train their own children, so neither can I. But there is one matter which Midas is unable to teach you, as he does not understand this power within you."_

 _Nico looked at him warily, trying to decide whether or not he cared enough about this conversation to argue with his father. He eventually decided that he did not, and so simply replied. "Fine, whatever. I'll come down when I wake up." He turned away, but suddenly felt Hades' hand upon his right shoulder._

 _"Wait, son. Please. I know something happened while you were missing," Nico turned furiously around, "And I know you don't want to talk about it. But, I can't tell if it was a good experience or not. Just tell me, did anything bad happen wherever you were?"_

 _Nico smiled darkly, already thinking of what he could do to punish that impertinent ghost who dared to tell on him. He looked up at his father, who recoiled at the barely-hidden pain behind Nico's armored eyes, "Nothing bad happened. In fact, it was the best day of my life." This time, when Nico turned around to walk away and out of the dream, Hades didn't say or do anything to stop him. In fact, if Nico had turned back around, he would have seen The God the Dead staring after him with shock openly plastered on his face._

When Nico woke up again, Midas was still gone. He growled; that ghost was going in for a world of pain when he saw him next. Maybe that's why he was gone, because he knew that Nico would be upset at Midas' actions and would want to express his displeasure. Tears suddenly appeared in the corners of his eyes, unbidden, unwanted. Somewhere deep inside of himself, Nico had secretly wanted to have someone around when he woke up, even if that someone was an obnoxious ghost. This was new for him, for he usually he preferred sleeping alone. After Bianca had left and Percy betrayed his trust, the idea of sleeping with someone else in the same room, being that vulnerable, scared Nico more than anything. But now…now he knew someone that he would trust with anything; even to keep him safe while he slept.

He shook his head, this was not the time nor the place to get sentimental over something he can't change at the moment. He stood up, his muscles less creaky now that he was not spending the night on the forest ground. His knees complained as he walked around. There was some money on the stool next to his mattress, which meant that Midas must have come in at some point while he was sleeping and decided to leave before he woke up. Nico decided to go ahead and take the money for what it was, a peace offering, go aboveground to get some breakfast, and then head downstairs to find out what his dad wanted to teach him that Midas could not.

~Line Break~

One McDonalds breakfast later (because he can never resist a Happy Meal), and he found a quiet alley through which he shadow traveled down to the Underworld. He always got a weird feeling going down there; a mixture of elatedness and fear. The feeling was familiar, yet foreign to Nico. But other than him, the atmosphere struck fear deep into every person's heart who came down here, alive or not. The boy usually felt more at home here, but this time, he just felt annoyed. He didn't want to be reminded of the man he had just left behind and couldn't tell anyone about, especially not by another man who was supposed to be his father.

He had landed not far from Hades' palace, exactly where he aimed for. That gave him time to settle his thoughts and at least pretend to be happy to see Hades. The walk was dim and gloomy, just as the Underworld always was. He saw two of the Furies flying far away from where he was, and wondered idly where the third one was. The gate loomed before him too soon, and opened slowly, responding to the underworld prince's touch.

The maze of hallways always succeeded in getting Nico at least a little bit lost, but he soon found the door leading into Hades' throne room, where he assumed his father was. As he was about to pass through the door, one of the many carvings caught his eye. He stilled, taking in the image with a quiet panic in his heart. The image showed New York City, and a large, humanoid creature. There were no colors in the carving, but Nico guessed that if there were, the creature would be green. Bruce had refused to transform for Nico, but the young boy guessed that he probably looked like that. The Hulk was in the process of destroying a skyscraper, with images of helpless mortals lying around his feet, and unrecognizable creatures flying above him on some sort of vehicle.

It was not clear what was happening in the carving; whether Bruce was trying to save the humans from the other creatures, or the creatures are there to stop the Hulk from hurting more mortals. Nico gulped and hoped desperately that the image was not actually of his friend, but was simply some other large humanoid creature.

But he had no time to dwell on the future, and walked with a confidence he did not feel into the throne room. Just as he had guessed, Hades was sitting on his throne, waiting for his son. The tall, foreboding man stood up as Nico walked into the room. "Hello Nico."

Nico simply scowled at him in response. Now that he was in his father's presence again, and could compare his demeanor, his attitude, his presence, to Bruce; Hades didn't even compare. But, Hades is his father, and apparently had something useful to tell him. Nico finally said, "I'm here. Whats so important to teach me that I had to come down here?"

Hades face fell, something that did not happen often. Most often, he kept his expressions under tight control, except when he was with his children. He had always had a soft spot for Nico and Bianca, and it hurt him to see Nico so broken from the loss of his sister. But he quickly got his face back under control and gestured for his son to follow out into one of the training rooms scattered throughout the castle.

Nico followed, albeit reluctantly but stopped short at the sight of the massive hellhound sitting in the middle of the weaponless room, almost as tall as a truck. "What's the meaning of this? Why is there one of those vicious dogs in here?"

Hades looked personally offended at Nico's question, and the hound somehow seemed to take offense at the words too. "That is a hellhound, and it is not vicious unless I want it to be. And you, as my son, have control over them as well, which is what I want to teach you today." Hades announced.

Nico stared at his father, taking in what he had just said. He had control over the freaking hellhounds? He had no idea what he was expecting when he came down here, but learning that he had control over the feared hounds of hell was not it. "Okay," he said slowly. "Why would I even want to know how to control the hellhounds? I have no use for them." He slowly moved towards the hound still sitting quietly in front of him.

Hades stood there and watched him, waiting until his son turned back around to him before answering his question. "The hellhounds have several uses which in these coming days, you may find useful. As you mentioned, they are particularly vicious when they want to be, which makes them extremely helpful in war." Hades looked at his son purposely, making certain he realized exactly what he was saying. Nico's face fell, feeling the weight of what he was just told. "They are also capable of shadow traveling, which means if you ever need to travel long distances you can travel on them, instead of using your own energy."

Here Nico suddenly got really excited and looked at the hellhound with longing in his eyes. Hades wondered once more what happened to his son while he was missing. Midas had told him that Nico explained he had traveled to India, which made Hades a little bit apprehensive, since the gods had never taken up residence there. But Nico looked as if he was anxious to go back, using the hellhounds as transportation. Hades mildly regretted showing this particular power to Nico, but knew that in the war coming fast, Nico would need every advantage he could give him. He hoped that the benefits would outweigh whatever Nico was planning to do with this new information.

"Hound, come here." Hades commanded the hellhound, who immediately stood up and strode over to them, whimpering slightly he came near the master of all his kind. "Nico, this hellhound will be your personal one, which means if you ever call a hound, this one will always be the first to answer your call. You can name it if you wish, but that is unnecessary. He will obey your every order, but be careful. They are ruthless killers , and if given any leeway will turn around and destroy you. Always state your order explicitly and leave no room for interpretation. Do you understand?" He kept an eye on the hellhound, making sure it understood what was expected of it. He had given the hound its orders earlier, before Nico came in, but wanted to ensure that he had not overlooked anything.

"Yeah, I got it." Nico replied, looking at the hound with excited expectation in his eye.

"Good. I will leave you to test your control over the hellhound. Be careful, and call if you need anything." Hades was trying to be a concerned parent, he really was. He owed his neglected son that much, at least.

Nico didn't even look at him again as the king of the Underworld strode out of the training room, but not before leaving with one more concerned look at his son. "Hey there. You need a name, humongous thing. How about…Shadow?" The hellhound looked at him with a curious face. "Yeah, I think that's a good name for you." The hound seemed to disagree with him, but Nico just kept talking. "So, Shadow, you're mine huh?" It might have been his imagination, but the hound seemed to nod his gigantic head. Nico had always felt small, especially since he was still fairly young, but he felt absolutely tiny next to the hellhound. He understood the need for explicit commands, because if he gave this thing any room to maneuver, there was no way he could ever stop it from ripping him to shreds.

"I wonder…just how far can you go? Could you make it all the way to India?" He asked softly, creeping ever closer to Shadow. This time, the hound seemed to shake its head 'no', which disappointed Nico. "Okay, that makes sense. It's a long way over there. But could you get me over the ocean at least?" It was definitely not Nico's imagination this time when Shadow nodded its massive head, coming dangerously close to hitting Nico's head. At least it wasn't slobbering all over the place, he thought with a laugh.

 _This could work_ , Nico thought happily. _I could shadow travel myself to California, then Shadow could hop me over the ocean, then I could probably make it to India on my own strength. I would probably still pass out when I got to Bruce, but_ … _but that would be okay_. Even though he had realized already that he implicitly trusted Bruce, thinking about putting that trust into action was a different story. But, he realized, it didn't scare him as much as it could.

A large smile on his face, Nico walked out of the room, telling Shadow that he would probably need call him soon and to be prepared. He walked past his father's throne room, where Hades was conspicuously absent, and decided to go ahead and just go back upstairs to the cavern. Hopefully Midas wasn't back yet, or else executing his tenuous plan would become much harder. But he made it back up to the Labyrinth without any problems, and Midas still wasn't back. He smiled, gathering up food and supplies for his next trip back overseas.

.

 **AN: I'm sorry that this took so long guys, there's really no excuse. But it's an extra-long chapter, so I hope that helps. I'm gearing up for the boys getting back together so yay! Please please please please review! It's been a bad couple of weeks recently, and you have no idea what even a simple "Love this story" can do for my entire day. So thank you to my beta and for reading!**


	7. Ch 7--Bruce

**AN:** Well, my life finally calmed down enough to be able to write and edit this chapter. Sorry it took sooooo long! There was finals, and moving back to California for the summer, and two different jobs, and just basically life. So here's the next chapter, where we're gonna start moving into the actual Percy Jackson books. WARNING: quite a bit of cussing in this chapter, and this warning will probably stay in effect until the story ends. But thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed! They did actually help me write faster, honestly they did :) Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you think can be improved!

 **Bruce:**

He had decided that three weeks was too long to spend in any one location, even if Nico hadn't come back yet. He would never be able to forgive himself if he stayed in one place for too long and got innocent people hurt. So he took one last trip to the clearing in the woods and left a message for Nico, just in case he ever came back. He was worried about the son of Hades, who had seemed eager to come back as soon as he could, and yet it had been two weeks since he had last seen the child. Bruce had briefly entertained the possibility that Nico was injured or otherwise incapacitated, but quickly put those thoughts out of his head before he emotionally charged back into the US (aka the worst idea he had ever had), and forced himself to trust that Nico knew what he was doing.

He wished that Nico had a cell phone, but the demigod had explained that cell phones attracted monsters to them, and that it was not a good idea at all for him to have one. While that explanation made sense, it didn't make Bruce feel any better about not having a way to contact Nico. So he hoped that if Nico ever came back, he would think to look in the clearing for a hint to where Bruce had gone. The older man had purposefully made the note cryptic as he could, and tried to use phrases that only Nico would be able to understand, just in case SHIELD came looking for him and somehow found the note. He took one last look at the city he had called home for the last three weeks, in the dim pre-sunrise light and set out towards the North. He knew there were several other villages in that direction, and he would just move through them until someone else needed a doctor or he overstayed his welcome.

*****line break****

He had walked through two villages before he came upon someone so sick that they would trust a strange white man to try and heal the dying six year old girl. He knew that the parents and other members of the community did not want to trust him, but after taking one look at the child, he also knew that there was no way anyone could heal her without many years of medical experience. Bruce guessed that the villagers recognized this fact, as she had been sick since she was born, and while the local doctors had tried everything they knew, the girl had only gotten steadily worse. So they reluctantly allowed him to treat her, and gave him whatever supplies he said he needed. Well, not so much _said_ , but rather pantomimed and written down in crude versions of their local dialect.

Bruce worked on saving the child for three days. She had an rather nasty disease that, if it had treated correctly when she was young, could have been controlled easily with local medicinal plants. But since it had run rampant, she was close to death. By using a mixture of herbal teas and other plant-based treatments, Bruce was able to bring her symptoms down from life-threatening to easily managed symptoms. The young girl would never be able to have a completely normal life, and would have to take large number of remedies to keep her symptoms under control, but she would live.

But throughout his whole treatment of the girl, he could only think of a certain skinny, dark-haired boy who he still hoped would turn up on his doorstep. He wished that he could have gotten some of the nectar and ambrosia that Nico had said can heal demigods much quicker than conventional medicine, just in case the young boy came back to him injured or just tired from shadow traveling there.

There were a few other children that were sick in the village, and after Bruce had worked so hard to save the girl, the parents trusted him enough to let him heal them as well. He stayed in the village for an entire month, as every day, they seemed to find more and more people who were sick. Bruce didn't mind, after all, the end result was him getting to help save people. He still lost two or three to incurable diseases, and the two-year-old with advanced pneumonia nearly broke him. But he kept pressing forward and remembered that he wasn't just healing them for his own conscience, but for Nico's. Because it was easy to give up on himself and just wallow in self-pity, but Nico deserved better than that.

Bruce was walking back to the small hovel he had been given by the villagers when suddenly, he heard his name being called behind him. Now this, in and of itself, was nothing unusual, but the fact that the voice did not carry the accent he had gotten used to hearing was highly unexpected. He turned around, just as he placed the voice; that young, angry voice. Sure enough, when he was facing the direction the voice had come from, standing in front of him was the son of Hades.

For a second Bruce thought that his mind must be playing tricks on him, it had been so long since Nico had left India, surely it wasn't actually him in front of the older man. But as the boy came running closer and closer, Bruce could see that it truly was the demigod, right before his eyes. But when Nico was mere feet in front of him, Bruce could see the anger, worry, disgust, and joy written on his face. He briefly wondered what could have caused the range of emotions on the young boy before he was caught up in a fierce hug.

He wrapped his arms around Nico, comforting him with nothing but his warm, fatherly arms. Nico suddenly seemed so much smaller than Bruce had remembered, seeming to shrink the longer than Bruce held the boy in his arms. Eventually they needed up kneeling next to each other in the middle of the walkway, where Bruce was suddenly thankful that he lived on the outskirts of the village. Nico never cried, never even sniffled, but Bruce could feel those tears threatening to overwhelm the boy.

He gently helped Nico stand up, but ended up carrying the skinny child in his arms the short distance remaining to his hovel. Nico hadn't spoken a word since he called out Bruce's name, and the older doctor was getting worried. The young boy had seemed to never run out of words when they had talked, but now he seemed to be drained of everything. Bruce idly wondered if Nico made it to India without passing out again, or if he had been alone while he recovered from the long journey. Nico didn't appear to be in any danger of passing out, only in danger of having an emotional breakdown.

He laid Nico gently on the small bed set in the corner, and quietly got him a glass of water. When Nico made no move to sit up on his own and drink the water, the older man helped him sit up and raised the glass to Nico's lips. Finally the boy's mouth parted and a small amount of water made its way down his parched throat. Once that first sip was received, Nico began to sit up under his own power and silently asked for more. Bruce complied, encouraged by Nico's response. Eventually, the water was finished, and Bruce simply sat back on the rickety chair he was sitting on, waiting for the young boy to tell him what was wrong.

It was obvious that Nico did not know what to say to him. So Bruce decided the break the ice. "You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but you do need to say something, Nico. Anything."

The boy's head hung, refusing to look Bruce in the eye. But he took a deep breath, seeming to gather his courage. "I did something…something really stupid. And I hurt someone that I care about…a lot."

"Okay. Let's start with what you did. What led you to make that stupid decision and what happened because of it?" Bruce asked him gently, giving him the space he knew the boy needed, but refusing to leave him alone. Whatever he had done, it had obviously hurt him, and possibly others as well. Bruce may not be a psychologist, but he'd be damned if he let this child suffer alone.

Silence filled the tiny room, but Bruce was willing to wait. He had suffered his own kind of mental anguish waiting to see if Nico would ever come back, and this was nothing compared to not knowing whether Nico was even alive. Finally, the boy lifted his head, and looked Bruce in the eye. His brown eyes were hard, protecting himself from what he was about to admit. One more deep breath, more of a sigh, and he was obviously ready to relate the events of the past two months.

"I told you I've been training with Minos, the Ghost King, who's been teaching me how to use my demigod powers," Bruce nodded in affirmation, "Well, the day after I went back to the States he decided to teach me how to summon ghosts. I've been looking forward to learning this for a long time, since I'm not allowed to see Bianca in the Underworld, I thought I could summon her ghost and talk to her that way." Nico looked ashamed of this admission, though Bruce did not understand why. "But, every time I preformed the ritual, she never came. I didn't understand why, and no one would explain it to me. Then I got this idea on how to get her back."

Nico turned away from Bruce, seemingly ashamed of his actions. Bruce wanted to say something, but was out of his depth with the world that the younger boy lives in. His voice was quiet as Nico whispered, "If I could just find someone who had cheated death, I could trade their soul for Bianca's, and…and get her back." His breath caught on the last statement, threatening to let loose the tears in his eyes. "I tried to explain it to my father, but he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't trade one damn soul to save my sister! So I decided that I would just do it on my own. If _He_ wouldn't help me, then I would help myself. So I started searching for a soul that had escaped Death in the first place, because then I would be helping my father and saving my sister. But there aren't many souls like that, and the few that exist are obviously well hidden. But Minos, once he figured out why I kept talking to Thanatos about escaped souls, gave me a suggestion. He told me that Daedalus, the inventor of the Labyrinth, had never reached the Underworld.

"So I set out to try and find where Daedalus had hid himself so successfully for thousands of years from Death himself. I went to this Ranch, somewhere in Texas, to talk to Geryon. He was supposed to be able to tell me where the inventor was hiding, but instead I ran into… _Percy_." Nico said his name darkly, fury and hurt dancing in his eyes. Bruce remembered Nico briefly mentioning this Percy, as someone who had betrayed his trust and his sister. The only thing Nico would tell the older man was that Percy was supposed to keep Bianca safe, and he apparently didn't. No matter what Bruce tried, Nico would not tell him anything more about the older boy who had hurt the son of Hades so much. It was apparent to Bruce that there was something more than just Percy failing to protect Bianca going on there. He had often wondered why it hurt Nico so much, but had never gotten the chance to really dig into those feelings.

Nico continued his story, oblivious to Bruce's musings about Percy. "The jerk thought that I was in trouble for some reason! He tried to 'save me from myself' or some shit like that. He didn't even ask me why I was doing wha I was doing. He just _assumed_ that he knows what's best, like the overbearing…uncaring…bastard that he is!" Nico's voice kept rising and rising as he spoke about Percy, although behind his anger, Bruce saw heartbreak in his eyes. Suddenly it made sense. Bruce understood why Nico was so hurt by Percy's supposed betrayal. But he also understood why Nico would never admit the reason behind it…he still harbored the morals of his original time. And to admit anything, would be to invite even more hurt and betrayal.

Bruce felt himself caught in a bind here; he could either tell Nico that he had figured out the biggest secret of Nico's life, and possibly shut the boy out forever; or he could continue on as if Nico was alone in facing his dilemma and make certain the boy would keep coming back to him. Nico had kept talking while Bruce was caught in a moral quandary. "After he killed Geryon, who was my best shot at finding Daedalus, by the way, he had the audacity to pretend as if he had just saved my life. Which wouldn't have been in danger if he hadn't been there in the first place! Then, he tells me to try summoning Bianca again, and how did he know what I had been doing anyway!" Nico spat, "At first, I didn't want to, but he kept insisting, so finally I did. We used the septic tank out in the back, and I preformed the ritual, ready to humiliate Percy when Bianca didn't show up again.

"But she did! She did fucking show up, and said that she had been sending Percy Iris-messages showing him what I had been doing! I couldn't believe it! She then tried to warn me about my fatal flaw or whatever, but honestly I wasn't paying too much attention. I was just so fucking pissed off! And then she told me to stop trying to bring her back and to let her be or something, and then she left." He turned away from Bruce, seemingly ashamed. His voice fell, husky and quiet. "She left me again. She just…took off. Like she did with the Hunters, and then when she died. Aren't older siblings supposed to stay and protect you? Why couldn't she stay?" Nico stood up, as Bruce shifted behind him. The older man watched Nico closely, obviously that was more than he meant to say, and didn't want to seem as if he was hurting as much as he was.

Bruce had learned some tricks over the years to get people to tell him things they would never tell anyone. They worked both on the people he had been treating for the past few months and on himself, when he got too angry. But he didn't want to force Nico to tell him what was really wrong; he didn't want Nico to leave him. _Isn't that ironic,_ Bruce thought, _Nico's the one who obviously has abandonment issues, and_ I'm _the one who doesn't want him to leave._

But then Nico started talking again. "There's more to the story, though. It didn't stop after Bianca left. Percy and his group left the ranch, and I was able to stay behind, thank the gods. But then Minos showed up," he turned around and looked at Bruce, "did I tell you about Minos last time?" Bruce nodded his head, thinking of their talk in the forest, so long ago. "Okay, good. He…well, he tricked be into going back into the Labyrinth to save Percy, but instead I just got captured by a couple of Kronos' monsters."

Now Bruce was lost; who the hell is Kronos? But Nico continued on, oblivious to the fact that the only other person in the room had no idea who he was talking about. "They took me to Daedalus' workshop, which was not what I had expected it to be, by the way. It was all modern and shit, instead of the old, run-down place we had thought it would be. And he had actually made a deal with fucking Luke to help them navigate the Labyrinth easily. Traitor," Nico muttered under his breath. "Percy and his group was already there, and even Minos was there with the monsters, since he had _also_ betrayed me.

"Anyway, a fight broke out between everyone, and at first I didn't want to help out, but then Percy started losing, so I opened up a hole in the ground that sucked Minos back down to the Underworld. That allowed us all to escape, though escape is a relative word since we had to head right back into the Labyrinth. THERE we ran into Kronos, who had possessed Luke, and he nearly killed us. So in order to save us, I had to reveal myself as a Son of Hades in front of Kronos, which was not a good idea, but we were kind of out of options. So I created a wall of black stone in between us and Kronos, which allowed us to escape, again. This time we ran into the lost god, Pan, who Grover had been searching for, and he spoke to all of us, except for me, and he just looked at me with this weird look in his eyes, like pity or something, but he didn't say anything to me. I don't understand why, is it because I'm a Son of Hades? Is it because I accidentally almost ki…never mind. It doesn't matter."

Once Nico stopped for breath, Bruce was thoroughly confused, but understood that the boy in front of him was deeply hurt by everything that had happened, and he was hiding something again. But Bruce knew better than to try and force Nico to tell him something the boy wanted to hide; he had attempted that the first day they met, and had gotten nowhere. But Nico had continued talking again. Bruce figured that at this point, Nico just needed to say what had been bothering him, and wasn't really looking for advice or commentary from anyone else.

"Now that we were back at Camp Half-Blood, we began preparing for war, since we knew that Luke would be bringing an army through the Labyrinth. During the battle, we lost a lot of campers. Too many. I wasn't strong enough to physically fight the monsters, so I summoned some skeleton warriors. But I brought up too many and nearly burned myself out. _Percy_ ", Nico spat out the name again, "gave me some nectar, the little motherfucker saving my life…again. Then Daedalus came up to me and offered to exchange his soul for Bianca's, which I will admit did tempt me, but…then I remembered something you said to me, while we talked that day. You told me, 'Death is not the end for them, but it is their end for us.'. So I just let Daedalus' soul go the Underworld, and left Bianca down there." Here Nico turned away from Bruce, shame obvious in the way he hung his shoulders and bowed his head.

"Did I make the right decision?" Bruce could barely hear the words whispered to the walls of his tiny house, the forbidden thought finally being voiced. "Should I have brought her back? I _need_ her, Bruce. I don't know if I can make it without her. When Thorn tried to kidnap us, she was the strong one. She was the one who tried to get us out, and I was just a stupid kid who couldn't even come up with a plan to get us out of there. She should be the one here, not me." Nico was shaking by this point, his voice still low, as if he was telling a secret. Bruce stood up slowly, recognizing how emotionally fragile the young boy was. No eleven year old should have to question whether or not they should be dead instead of a sibling.

But as Bruce walked slowly over to Nico, the boy started shaking even more, and pulled his arms tight across his chest, still facing the wall. So Bruce pulled over the only two chairs in his house, sat down on one and placed the other by Nico's side. He was silent for a long time, while the shaking gradually subsided. Finally Nico moved from his standing position to sit down, where Bruce had purposefully turned it so that Nico would be facing him if he wanted to sit down. That way he could at least Bruce could see his face while he talked. He had no idea what he could even say to Nico to try and calm his fears, as this was not something he had ever read about or been taught.

He took a deep breath, and forced his own qualms down; this was about Nico emotional state, not Bruce's personal fears of inadequacy. "So if I understand everything, then Thanatos and your father are both in charge of death, and everything that comes after. Is that correct?" Nico nodded. "Then don't you think that if Bianca was supposed to have lived, and you were the one who was supposed to die, that at least one of them would have noticed that?" Again, Nico nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly. "And do you trust either of them?"

"Both", came the raspy whisper of a voice trying desperately not to cry. "I trust both of them."

"Then can you trust that _you_ are the one who is supposed to be alive right now, even if you don't want to be?" Nico nodded a third time, his arms across his chest slightly relaxing. "Death is not the end, but we cannot pretend they are still alive. Like you repeated earlier; Death is not the end for them, but it is their end for us. We have to let them go and accept that their soul has passed on. You have something special, Nico. None of us ever know where a person's soul has gone when they die. Even if your father won't allow you to see your sister, you know where she is. In some ways though, that just makes it harder, doesn't it?"

Again, Nico nodded, relaxing just the slightest bit more. That was all the confirmation Bruce needed to know he was taking the right direction in attempting to calm Nico down. But before he could say another word, a black dog walked calmly into the middle of the room. Nico seemed to notice it immediately, cracking a rare but slightly pained smile. "Shadow, what are you doing here?" Nico asked it, while it seems to stare at Nico with a disapproving look in his eyes.

Bruce hardly reacted when the dog walked in, as it often happened in this part of the country, but when Nico called it by name and seemed to know who the dog was, he became suspicious. From what little he knew of the demigod in front of him, coincidences don't just happen to him. If Nico knows this dog, then it is probably not actually a dog and is actually some sort of god or other powerful being. Nico was still staring at the creature standing in front of them both, looking a little bit scared of something.

Bruce cleared his throat quietly, bringing the attention of both boy and dog to him, noting the unusually intelligent eyes of the sleek black dog in front of him. "So, uh, how do you know this…dog? Nico?" He tried to sound non-accusatory, but was pretty sure he failed.

Nico actually seemed to look surprised, as if he had been expecting a different question. "You don't…you don't see the giant dog smashing your furniture?"

"What" Bruce said, his voice flat and disbelieving. Nico looked confused, staring concernedly at the dog in the room, as if he expected it to grow suddenly and take out the roof. But nothing happened, and Bruce and Nico both kept staring at the dog, but for different reasons.

"The Mist!" Nico suddenly exclaimed. "The Mist must be keeping you from seeing him! But I'm not able to manipulate the Mist yet, so I can't actually show you what he looks like. But just take my word for it, this dog is actually a ten-foot tall Hellhound named Shadow."

Bruce looked blankly at the apparently-not-a-dog sitting down in front of him. "So, he's actually crushing my furniture right now, not just sitting at your feet looking cute?"

Nico nodded, looking a little bit ashamed. "Sorry, I'll take him outside so he doesn't break anything else."

"What else has he broken," came the monotone voice of Bruce, now staring at a spot above the dogs head, presumably where he thought the actual head should be.

"Um, everything but the basin and your bed."

"So the chairs and the table."

"Yes."

"Okay, I can live with that."

Nico breathed a sigh of relief, apparently having expected a much worse reaction.

"I was going to leave this village soon anyway, so hopefully I have enough time to fix them up before I go." Bruce said carefully, already thinking through the logistics of fixing up a table and chairs in such a short amount of time. "Just answer me this, Nico. Why is there a ten-foot tall Hellhound in my house?"

"Basically because it's time for me to go back to America. I told Shadow to come back once he was rested enough to take me back to California. The war is heating up, and I came up with a really stupid plan to try and beat Kronos. I…I've only told Percy because even though I hate him, he is the child of the prophecy and I want to continue living after the war. If it works, though, I'll come back and tell you what happened. Percy's birthday is in about nine months. That's the day that we will win or lose. If we lose, you'll know. If we win, I'll come back here as quickly as I can." Nico hardly looked at Bruce as he said that, as if afraid of what he would see in Bruce's face.

Bruce didn't say anything for a few seconds, taking in all the information Nico had just thrown at him, when Nico smiled really big and looked at Bruce happily. "I-Message! I forgot about I-Messaging! I don't know if it works with mortals who can't see through the Mist, but I've got to try. Then I can keep you up-to-date with everything and you can tell me where you are!" Nico started digging through his pockets, and excitedly held up a gold coin. "Is there anywhere around here where we can create a rainbow?"

Now Bruce was thoroughly confused. But he led Nico outside to a bucket of water, the only water source anywhere near Bruce's house. "This is all I've got. What do you even need a rainbow for?"

Nico didn't reply, staring intensely at the bucket, not even noticing the black dog growling at Nico's lack of leaving the country. He stayed that way for close to a minute, and then shook his head and put the coin back into his pocket. "Well, I don't think I'll be able to demonstrate it to you. So I'll just describe it, and hope that it works when I need to contact you next. Basically, us demigods can use this thing called an Iris-Message, or IM for short. Iris is the goddess of the rainbow, and if we toss an offering into a rainbow, usually a gold drachma, she'll connect our message to someone else. So I was gonna try and show you how it works and see if you can even see it, but that's not going to happen. So, I guess when I get back to the States, I'll try and send you an IM to test if it works. If it doesn't, I guess I'll just have to track you down again like I did today."

Bruce nodded, the mass of facts slowly making sense in his head. "Okay. So basically you can send messages through rainbows, and you have to leave with the apparently ten-foot tall Hellhound currently growling at you, and you're going back home to fight a war with a plan to win so stupid you won't even tell me what it is until you know its outcome. Did I get everything?"

Nico at least had the good sense to hang his head at Bruce's succinct, but pointed, accusations. Finally he looked back up at him, and smiled when he saw Bruce wasn't angry, but was, in fact, proud. He could tell that Nico was still apprehensive about, well, everything; but, Nico had sought Bruce out in another country just to let him know he was okay. Bruce knew only one thing for sure right then, he was doing something right. And another right thing to do would be to just let Nico go, and trust (and pray to the gods, against his beliefs) that the boy would come back to him one day.


	8. Story poll on my profile page

Okay, so this is not a new chapter, because I am stuck. I honestly cannot decide which way I want the story to go. SO I created a poll on my profile page to let you, my beautiful readers, tell me which way you want the story to go. Basically this is a  
poll about the climax, because whatever the climax of the story is determines where I'm going next.

Option 1: a reviewer early on suggested that The Last Olympians final battle and the Avengers movie happen at the same time, along with some other heart-rending things I could do with this one. KEEP IN MIND, this option is definitely the most complex  
one, and will push back updates quite a lot.

Option 2: The Last Olympian happens first, then maybe the Avengers battle

Option 3: the opposite of #2, Avengers first then the Last Olympian.

So please please please please vote, or review, or pm me or something so I know which way to go! I can so many different paths the story can take depending on which option is chosen, but I'm not strong enough to choose, and besides, you guys have been  
what have made this story soooooo awesome. I love all of you. So basically this long-winded explanation is to say please vote, and I'll update as soon as I can!


	9. Ch 9--Nico

**AN at the end. WARNING-Ranting and excuses will be involved.**

 **I know it's a short chapter, but I got to this point and had to post** ** _something_** **for you guys.**

 **Nico:**

It had been nine months since he last saw Bruce. He had meant to IM him, honestly he had. But war preparations take a surprisingly long time when your army is comprised of teenagers who just happened to have special powers. His plan had worked though, and Percy was now invulnerable. Besides the one mortal point on him of course. But maybe now he would survive long enough to….No. Nico shook his head. That wasn't why he convinced Percy to swim in the River Styx. He did it so that Percy could fulfill the prophecy and kill Kronos. That was the only reason.

Yeah, Nico could no more convince himself of that then he could convince Percy that there was a spy in the camp. Every time they went on a recon mission, monsters would be there waiting for them. Most of the time they defeated the monsters quickly without anything more serious than some cuts or a broken bone. But occasionally they would come back one or two members lighter. And for a camp with only a couple hundred campers to begin with, losing those friends to monsters, on top of the demigods who went missing for no noticeable reason, the losses were starting to be felt.

But Percy, the stupidly optimistic demigod, saw no reason to suspect anyone of being a spy for Luke. He reasoned that because they never saw anyone near them when they were discussing plans, that no one could possibly be leaking said plans to Luke. But Nico never agreed that they were always alone; he didn't know if he was just paranoid, but he could swear that most of the time, he felt…. _something_. Something very similar to what he had started noticing when he was with Bruce. A certain…awareness of what might be described as a soul.

Nico wasn't sure if that is what it actually is, but it made sense. Minos did teach him how to summon ghosts, which are just basically the souls no longer in a body. And Bruce had a very particular _something._ It was stronger than anyone else's, and very different. Bruce's was feral, almost primal, whereas most other people simply felt reserved, like that they were waiting. And whenever they were discussing a mission plan, Nico could feel several _somethings,_ most of them near him, but one was barely there. Just nearly out of his perception.

Obviously it wasn't something he wanted to mention to the other demigods, but he did try to convince them of his feelings without actually describing what it was he felt. It never worked though, and he only managed to convince they that he was totally paranoid. So he stopped trying. But he never stopped trying to figure out who it was he felt. It stood to reason that the spy was one of the demigods still at camp, but the sensation was so light, so fleeting in his awareness, that he didn't have enough information to figure out who it was.

So Nico started training. He began honing in on the _something_ whenever he was around other people, training himself to focus on it, to feel it, to see it. Because he knew that if he could become more sensitive to the _somethings_ then eventually he could distinguish between individual people. Right now, he could distinguish between Bruce and literally anyone else, but that didn't help him much at that moment.

But there were mere days until the battle was probably going to start. No one expected it to last the one day that Percy's birthday had landed on. Everyone knew that it would start before, but no one would have guessed it would begin after Percy single-handedly made Mt. St. Helen erupt and release Typhon; the idiot. That really shocked everyone into a faster state of preparation. The majority of the demigods had hoped that somehow, it would all be resolved without a huge battle, even though they knew that would never happen. But still, they had hoped.

Then, it started. And strangely, the hyper-awareness that came from knowing the war was literally taking place right then and there brought a sort of clarity to Nico, and how his plans for his war preparations changed when he had last visited Bruce.

 _"_ _I'm going to search for information on my mother," Nico said determinedly, yet unable to look Bruce in the eyes._

 _"_ _Why do I feel like that's something you should_ not _be doing?"_

 _Nico looked up at Bruce's concerned eyes, and suddenly scrambled for any excuse to pick at the single loose thread on his shirt. "Well, I mean…maybe I'm not 'supposed' to really find out anything about her since my father 'might have' forbid it…but I just want to know about my mom! Why is that so much to ask!" He sighed, still looking down. "The war is coming, and I don't want to die and not even know who my mother is until she's standing in front of me. I want to know something. Anything, about her."_

 _Bruce sighed, which worried Nico, but he still couldn't bring himself to look at the older man's eyes, fearful of what he might see there. "I can't even pretend to understand the politics of what you just said. But, what I can understand is your father's order." He gently placed his hand under Nico's chin and met his eyes. "There's obviously something that concerns Hades about your mother, and while you are definitely no ordinary eleven-year old, you are still only eleven. From what little I know of your father, he does care about you. And sometimes, caring for someone else means keeping back information until they're ready for it."_

 _He held up a hand to stop Nico's protests, "I'm sure you think you're ready. But you don't know what you don't know, and Hades does. Now whether or not you're actually ready is something of a paradox; you can't know you're ready until you're told the truth, but you can't know the truth until you're ready. So my advice, if you want it, is to wait. Hades will tell you when he sees, through your actions and your life, that you are ready for whatever he has to say. So, I can't forbid you from seeking out the truth on your own, but I hope that you at least consider my words."_

Nico did consider his words, for a long time. And eventually, he decided to believe Bruce. For some reason, this thin man, this half-monster, this wise man had become more of a father figure than Hades was. Nico knew why—Bruce listened to Nico, Bruce showed he understood Nico's fears and reasoning, and Bruce offered actual reasons for doing something or for not doing it. Nico did love Hades, but Bruce loved Nico in a more tangible and accessible way.

So Nico never did start searching for information on his mother. He had already looked into Luke, though, and how Luke could possibly be hosting Kronos since his human body should never have been able to hold that much power. In his searching, he discovered May Castellan, her insanity, and the fact that Luke had come to ask her for her blessing. This in turn led him to the foolish plan of convincing Percy to swim in the Styx and thereby receiving the same curse as Luke; the curse of invulnerability. _Maybe…maybe if I show Percy how much I need him to survive this he'll see how much I…No. He doesn't feel the same way, I can tell. But even if he doesn't see that I need him, at least he'll be alive._ Nico couldn't bear to tell Bruce his true reasons for his insane plan, because even though he knew Bruce would understand and accept him, memories of his childhood always came back to him and he just couldn't get the words out.

 _Alleys, blood, and stupid-looking faces always drifted into his mind when he thought back to when he was a child. Even though he is only eleven, he could never consider himself a child again. Partly because he was stuck in a magic hotel for seventy years, partly because of what he gone through after Alecto brought them out of the Lotus Hotel. But mostly because of what they had done to him, back then. He had never told anyone, of course. They wouldn't be able to understand. No one ever did._

So he trained his mind to search out and identify the _somethings_ , which he had decided had to be people's souls. Even though the thought of being able to feel souls was scary to him, he also recognized that his ability to identify individual souls could mean the difference between life and death in this war.

 **AN:**

 **All right, so it's been a while. And all I can say is, blame my university, blame my job, blame me, and blame my inability to do anything I care about. I got a new job at the start of the semester, and I'm grading papers for a literally insane, racist, sexist, ableist, every-other-ist-you-can-think-of person who just makes me cringe and I hate her but I need money so I sold my soul to the Devil. And she is one of the biggest reasons I haven't updated. Also it's just been a really tough semester. September was especially hard for me, but I'm still alive. Which is the only good thing to come out of that month. I've also just had really really bad professors who don't actually care about teaching and obviously don't care about their students. So it's just been a bad situation all around this semester. So hopefully this is the start of me updating regularly again, but I wouldn't count on it. Knowing my luck, the second I get started on the next chapter, every class is gonna dump essays and tests on my lap and I won't finish it for two months (like what happened this chapter).**

 **So yeah, if you're still reading this then thank you for being so supportive of me in this story, you guys honestly make me smile every time I think of the nice things you've said to me, and sometimes you are the only people that make me smile a genuine, happy smile. So thank you. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for you.**


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